I'm not sure what it says that for a team that boasts Stephen Strasburg, Adam Dunn, Ryan Zimmerman and Ivan Rodriguez, the player drawing the most attention from fans right now is Michael Morse. Certainly, it says the guy has been producing just about every time he's been called upon this season (which hasn't been nearly as often as most people would like).

Though I have to admit: It baffles me a bit how much people think more playing time for Morse is the answer to all of the Nationals' woes. Why did the Nats lose last night's game, 7-5, to the Brewers? Because Craig Stammen wore down by the fifth inning. Because Tyler Clippard and Sean Burnett couldn't hold a lead. And because one batter reached base over the game's final five innings.

Does Morse (now batting .338 with a 1.022 OPS) deserve to play more? Sure. And he'll almost certainly be in the lineup tonight against Milwaukee left-hander Manny Parra. But is his presence alone going to turn the Nationals' fortunes around? Seems hard to believe that.

In other news … you may have read by now that Mike Rizzo revealed Jim Riggleman will be back as manager next season. Which, I suppose, is good to know. There won't be any question about Riggleman's future the rest of the season and no managerial search this fall. But this isn't as earth-shattering a development as you might think. Riggleman was given a two-year contract last winter. He wasRead more »

Good points Mark. The things with Riggs, though, are therapeutic to a certain extent. If the players can't play as well as they can't, the thinking seems to go, at least let the skipper put the best lineup/strategy forward. We were already at enough of a disadvantage, as you pointed out.Anyway I'll mention again that signing both Harper and Cole will lessen the blow of the down season.

Mark,Look back at all the recent shut outs and lack of offense and it does not take much to see how just a run or two from having Morse play in those games would have a dramatic effect….not sure why you always like to try to carry rational arguments to irrational concussions to show support for current Nats practices…..nobody is saying Morse is the answer to all the Nationals problems….get real!

Mark,Elaborating on JayB's comment, the other factors that went into our losing the game fall into the "that's baseball" category, over which the manager has little or no control. Left Clippard in too long, doesn't know how to use Burnett properly–that's garden variety stuff. But taking a righthanded batter, uninjured, out of a game in the middle innings in which he'd already hit 2 HRs? Have you ever seen that before? Maybe that's a big story?And what about your last factor–only one Nats batter reached base over the final 5 innings. Maybe a correlation between that failure and the removal from the game of the club's only effective hitter?

Morse isn't the solution to all that ails the Nats, but he is a small symptom of what a lot of us find so infuriating about Riggs more generally. He's got a pretty thin roster to work with in the first place and compounds his problems with boneheaded personnel choices.

The late-inning meltdown of the offense is an on-going thing. I'd love to see some stats on how many runs the Nats have scored per inning. They may or may not support my impression that most of the Nats' offense is front-loaded. Why is that?(if it is). Do the opposing pitchers & catchers figure out where our batters' holes are & exploit them the 2nd & 3rd time around? If we get into the bullpen for the 2nd & 3rd times thru the line-up, do our guys have trouble figuring out how to attack the relief pitchers? If so, would that be the fault of our scouting reports on opposing pitchers, or the fault of Rick Eckstein for not letting his batters know how to adapt?

Morse isn't a 'saviour', but does deserve more AB than Riggleman has been giving him, imo. It wouldn't stop the world from spinning on it's axis to sit Morgan every so often & go with Bernadina in CF & Morse in RF against a soft-tossing RHSP, along with the existing Bernadina/Morse platoon in RF. Teams ride a 'hot goalie' in Hockey, why not ride a 'hot bat' in baseball?

sit Morgan every so often & go with Bernadina in CF & Morse in RF against a soft-tossing RHSP, Or present BinM's point a different way … ask Riggleman why its okay to double-switch Willie Harris into a game into right field to give him an at bat, taking Morgan (who has been getting hotter), and moving Bernadina to center field? And not put Bernadina in center with Morse in right … for an entire game no double-switching his 'fav three' favorites Guz, Maxwell and Harris? Yes, believe me if Maxwell were on the active roster Riggs would find a way to start and play him. Harris really has had only one good series of late and that was in Cincinnati? Does he have a crush on these guys? No, seriously?

Marquis got bombed again last night in AA. (The contrast between his contract and Livo's is amazing. So many big contracts seem to blow up. For just the Nats — Marquis, Young, LoDuca, Kearns, even Estrada. I'd like to see a study of return on investment in the big contracts. Teixeira BTW isn't earning the mega bucks yet, either.) Anyway, I'm interested in see what an August rotation of Strasburg, Livo, Stammen, Detwiler, JZimm can do. Olsen seems to be doing okay, too; but poor John L. struggles on in Harrisburg.

Last night's game and last week's game and last month's game and last year's game all follow the same pattern: little elements of hope that enjoy lots of spin and hype, followed by the dreadful reality of the Nationals' mediocrity.

Mark Zuckerman said"Though I have to admit: It baffles me a bit how much people think more playing time for Morse is the answer to all of the Nationals' woes."Mark, this is truly an unfair statement.No one thinks Morse is the answer to *all* the Nat's problems. Yes, yesterday's game was lost by Stammen and the pen and Dunn's inability to pick a tough but catchable ball from ID. But maybe we could have generated more offense to overcome those failings, no?Morse is misued. It's hard to argue that this is not true.Sean Burnett is misused, regularly.Those are two examples of how this team is not being managed well.And while the statements from Rizzo certainly indicate that Riggleman is coming back, it worth noting that nothing has been cast, there's always wiggle room.

Eh, who ever said that life is fair, anyway? Oops, sorry, channeling my parents there. But I do agree that Mark's statement was a tad broad. Maybe it's the heat. I know that my own brain is about fried today. There has been a fair amount of Morse Crush from some sectors of the Natmosphere, but I don't know that anyone believes he's the answer to all our problems. Guess that we can't know for sure what he might offer until he gets more playing time, right? —Mark, this is truly an unfair statement.

So, you're saying that there's Riggle wiggle room? :-)I'm ambivalent about him, as I have been from the start, but I also don't know how much better anyone else would do with the cards that they'd be dealt.—And while the statements from Rizzo certainly indicate that Riggleman is coming back, it worth noting that nothing has been cast, there's always wiggle room.

Gonzalez has never played a single MLB inning at 1B.Dunn's 2010 OPS vs lefties is .020 *better* than Alberto's.So why does this make sense?I kinda want Alberto to get more playing time.I was thinking, bench Guzman, not Dunn.

Mark, since I'm probably one of the Morse boosters you are referring to, I have to pile on briefly, though many others have made the point well. There's no one answer to the Nats' problems. But Morse is hitting the cover off the ball this year, and he clearly hasn't been used enough. Last night's manifestion of Rigg's doubleswitchitis was an extreme and telling example. He also left Clippard in too long, left Burnett in too long, and switched himself into a very weak hitting lineup for the last few innings when we had fallen behind. Coming on the day we learned he is definitely coming back next year these bad moves were tough to take for alot of us. I felt as depressed last night as I had at any time since the meltdown in Houston at the end of May.

I don't have a problem with sitting Dunn down for a night. It's midsummer, and taking advantage of an occasion to rest starters is as old as baseball. The choice of Gonzo to go in is … odd. But I doubt he's worse than Dunn defensively, and for one game the Nats will probably have the best arm at 1b of any team in the league! And let's face it, the other option is to have Morse at 1b and either Morgan or TAWH in the game – or Kennedy! Yuck.Mark, of course you were exaggerating for effect with the Morse comment. The lack of playing time for Morse is inexplicable, of course. Even if he's a AAAA player on a hot streak, you ride the hot streak as long as you can. Baseball 101. In 1998 Shane Spencer came up to the Yankees and hit 10 HRs in a month w/2 grand slams, and hit 2 more in the ALDS – and was basically never heard from again. That may be Morse, but even if it is, USE IT!With a day game after a night game, it looks like Nieves will be catching Stras again tomorrow.John C.

I don't understand the JayB hatin'. There's nothing he wrote today that a reasonable person could possibly call caustic. I won't bother to defend him, just am puzzled by the criticism.Oh, and the spell checker. Seriously. That's lame. If you care that much about spelling, quit reading blogs.

The only positive spin I can possibly put on this Gozales at first thing is that it's Riggleman's way of saying "Hey Rizzo, if you trade Dunn this is what I'll be putting out there EVERY NIGHT."And whatever happened to Riggleman's plan to start batting Desmond second more often? Since he announced it over a week ago, he's done it exactly once. And tonight would seem to be the ideal time for it, what with Guzman leading off.Riggleman. An intriguing enigma wrapped up in a mysterious riddle. Just not a very good manager, though.

Yo, bro, add my voice to the who said he was the savior chorus? Of course he isn't the savior but he may be part of the solution. See what he does with two months of regular playing time.Or, barring that, DON'T TAKE HIM OUT OF GAME WHERE HE HAS TWO HOME RUNS AND FOUR OF THE TEAM'S FIVE RBI.I guess is Dunn goes get traded, Morse can move to 1B. Maybe he should be there tonight?At least he's somewhere for 5-6 innings.

Actually, Mike, I like the idea of bringing up a reliever for one day. With an unknown quantity in Detwiler tomorrow, they need to have a long guy in the bullpen for both these games. Batista (yikes) can be that guy for one game, not both. With a roster spot open for today's game, this is the game to bring the extra arm in for blowout protection.Now, why Balester? That's a bit more strange for me, given that he isn't exactly mowing them down at Syracuse. But if he's rested and other options in the minors have pitched recently, I don't think it's a big deal.John C.

Call me Anonymous Femme. Nice to see JayB is just as caustic and spoiling for a fight as he used to be on Nationals Journal. And his spellcheck doesn't work any better over here, either.Hmmm, well I hope you aren't confusing him with me? My spelling is superior, just, well I don't type fast enough to keep up with my train of thought at times … and there are always typo's. Heck AK and Mark introduce typo's often enough why not Moi? I am the original Morse booster. I looked at his stats coming over from the PCL and went wow. Then you watch him destroy the International League over an entire season … his problem is a lack of aggressiveness, call it fear in his fielding. That last injury that knocked him out for the season, a shoulder running into the wall for Seattle, seems to have taken something out of the guy defensively. Now, I would understand if Riggleman or Rizzo intimated that … but it still wouldn't explain hair-brained ideas like today? Gonzo at first instead of second over Guzman? Instead of Morse at first? What's the fixation with playing Harris and Guzman? Guys you know won't be back and really shouldn't be back next year? Not if you want to field a competitive winning team? In the future would Danny Espinosa have to sit in order to get Guzman or Harris at bats? That seems to fly directly in the face of Rizzo's replenish/rebuild the farm system to build the core of the major league club as his guiding principle? Riggleman's guiding principle appears to be "respect the veterans" above winning and especially his 'fav' three favorite guys … oh Maxwell isn't a veteran just yet … but Riggs we'll just throw him in there and hope no one notices. So, why not double-switch Guzman out for Harris if he must play? Guzman does not hit as well against right-handed hitting as he does left-handed hitting? Harris prefers, likes and claims he is better at second base? And Guzman is not going to spark winning rallies with his bat. He might get on base … but then so might Willie? They should be interchangeable. Morse and Harris are not interchangeable. Not even close. And yes, I'm the same guy who liked JD Martin in the face of all of his "haters" who claimed he was AAAA. I think he may be the most competitive guy on the team … nothing stops the guy … you think Maya, Zimmermann, and god forbid, Marquis, will knock him out of the rotation? Well, think again. He's going to find a way to be in the rotation and he doesn't need any help from the man crush mode manager to do it. Yes, Riggleman surely is an enigma … a very, very, very strange one at that.~peric

Mark, do you seriously feel the need to insult the intelligence of your readers by completely misrepresenting what the "Pro Morse" people are saying? You are "baffled" (or claim to be) by an opinion nobody has voiced. One of the oldest rhetorical devices in any discussion, but I can't help but wonder why you would resort to that.Some of us are in arms over the Morse situation because it epitomizes the problems with Riggleman, namely that he refuses to maximize the odds of his team winning. I'll repeat some of the key issues: DH use, Kennedy and Burnett and their splits and so on.I am baffled that you are not worried about that, or that you don't even feel the need to ask about that. As a journalist, one of the first things I would ask Riggleman is why he continues to trust Burnett against lefties when they hit .321 against him. And then I would ask Rizzo if he is not worried about Riggleman not knowing or not caring about such an essential piece of information.The same with Morse. Of course he's not the savior, but he'd maybe be worth one win over the rest of the season if he played regularly. One win doesn't mean a lot now, but can mean a lot in a playoff race.More importantly, we'd find out if he can be a good regular player. Is that not important information with respect to the future?The only good thing that can come from this announcement is that Riggleman can now stop managing for his job and start to manage for the future and play the guys who will be here.Considering what he said about veterans and their right to play last September, my hopes are slim, though.I'm German and have been an avid Nats fan since spending a year in DC in 2006. I have never been more frustrated about the franchise than today.Finally, some of the pieces are there, maybe for a run in 2012. Yet the front office is content with a manager who is, at best, mediocre. Unbelievable.

Thank goodness someone is happy.I guess I was one of the few who was thought it was good to get Morse out of left with a lead. He just looks uncomfortable out there. Yes start him some more, like tonight, but if it is close and we need good defense, get our best defenders out there.Our bigest problem continues to be inconsistent fielding. Riggs has run them thru pregame drills more than any other club ever sees, and they still mess up the basics. That says we need some player changes, not the manager. I am glad Riggs is coming back, and I like tonights lineup.

… happy birthday to me. Now on to the game…. Mark, in your assessment above, you didn't say anything wrong, but your underwhelming view of Mike Morse is difficult to fathom. The Nats lost last night, and he wasn't the cause. No quarrel there. But he did all he could and more to ensure they would win. That seems to me to be something not easily overlooked…. this is a team which has the potential to start winning again, and surely it would require Morse to be in the lineup for that to happen. Go Nats!!

From a journalistic point of view, maybe the most helpful thing AK or MZ could do is just flat-out ask Riggleman what is keeping him from playing Morse more. There is apparently a problem. But we're just spinning our wheels (which is fun in a way). But the frustration is out of bounds now. Somebody ask JR the tough question.

Braves still have interest in Josh Willingham of Nats…….would be solid pick-up for their offense – Bowden from twitter.Uhh natsfan1a, I think anon@5:55 is confused … he doesn't know the difference between Willingham and Dunn? Maybe its Zendo?

The Morse code is the baseball code where you take the hot horse and ride it until it stops producing.Could Morse turn into an everyday player in the OF like a Jayson Werth or a Corey Hart? Who knows but that is who Morse reminds me of and you don't know what you have unless you play him more.

Yes, perhaps anon@5:55 is confused, um, anon@6:45. (Now *I'm* confused. ;-))amo36, ich verstehe.Anon8, speaking of Morse code, I was watching MLB Network earlier today and they were covering last night's game in light of Uecker's return to the broadcasting booth. They were playing some of his commentary and he mentioned Morse code when Michael was at bat. I thought I was the only one who did that. At least Ueck got to see a win on his first night back and thus didn't have to break out the Jack Daniels as in Major League. :-DSpeaking of Hart, they also mentioned that he'd be having an MRI today and was day-to-day. Hope that his hand is okay. Hate to see that happen to anyone and it looked painful when he hit the wall.

My bottom line for the 'Morse' argument, is that Morse is flat out a better professonal hitter than Morgan. So with Bernadina in CF and Morse in RF we have more opportunity for offense. Morgan's fielding is not greater, and is sometimes worse than the other two guys. GOOOOOOOOOOOOO Michael!!!!

I am thinking JD Martin to the DL or AAA and Detwiler slips into JD's spot and the Nats need another starter on Friday.Also, Inglet's triple to start the bottom of the 3rd would have been caught by Morse or Dunn. Why exactly isn't Mike Morse playing 1st when Dunn gets a rest?

Ok, I will agree with Anon8, on trying Morse at first. He does not belong in right. Two nights in a row a hit to the corner that should be a double, became triple. I also agree that Dunn is good ehough at first to have gotten that ball. It's those bad throws to first that he still struggles with. Maybe by next season he will have developed enough to handle those as well.

Would it be too much to ask for Riggs to lay into an umpire from time to time. Good article in SI about Bobby Cox and how his team reacts to his ejections. Sometimes I feel if Riggs would lay into an ump the team might rally around his tirade. Tonight we need a spark and perhaps that could help us. I knew we couldn't make it until the 5th inning without a double switch. I have never seen a manager make so many double switches. The score is 2-0 Riggs. Go get em Miguel.

Hi everyone. It appears I upset some of you with my Michael Morse remark earlier. I certainly didn't intend to make light of your comments; I merely found it funny that with all of the high-profile players and hot-button issues facing the Nats right now, Morse's playing time is drawing the most attention.Do I believe Morse deserves more playing time based on his performance? Yes. Have I and other reporters asked Jim Riggleman about it? Yes, several times. His answer essentially boils down to this: 1) The organization wants to find out if Roger Bernadina is an everyday player, so he's going to play as much as possible, 2) As long as Nyjer Morgan is on the club, he's going to be the center fielder and leadoff man, and 3) Morse has shown the ability to thrive off the bench, and since not many players can do that, they want to use him in that role.That's not my opinion. That's what the manager has said anytime the question of Morse's playing time has been raised. And it's been raised plenty of times.My sincere apologies if I offended anyone with my earlier remarks. I certainly didn't intend to do that.

If they sent Josh, I wonder if the catcher up the line would have had a chance of tagging him on the way by? Still, I understand the hold and if Kennedy hadn't hit the ball right at someone, it might of worked out. We're still in it…

I thought the point of starting to tag at third on a short fly ball is to draw a throw and see if it gets thrown away. Shouldn't Willingham (with Listach's help) have been able to recognize that the throw was offline and keep running to score? If not, why even draw the throw?

In spite of the base running error, Morse's hit helped manufacture the first run. To make it 2-1. He is now hitting .338 with 10 extra base hits in 77 at bats plus 5 walks. He only has 15 K's to date. In the last 14 days he is hitting .400. In the last 7 days .667. Show me anyone on this team who is doing better?